I would like to express my full support to Phil Cohen, candidate for County Freeholder. As a witness to his contributions to the Hoboken reform movement, I know Phil is the ideal candidate for the job.

I've known Phil through his de facto leadership position of head of the reform minded Democratic County Committee members in Hoboken. Phil was instrumental in recruiting new, open minded candidates who were dedicated to changing politics as usual in Hoboken. Thanks to his leadership, the Hoboken Democratic Committee includes new individuals who have worked with Mayor Dawn Zimmer to make City Hall a more open, transparent and community friendly place, a dramatic turn from our city's past administrations. In addition, Phil was responsible for reforming the Hoboken Democratic Party so that tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions could no longer be funneled through the Democratic Party to support a candidate in a non-partisan election (such as a mayor), a practice that had been used to circumvent election laws in previous years.

I also worked extensively with Phil on another of his reform projects: changing the date of the municipal elections to coincide with elections that normally took place in November. Previously, the Hoboken municipal elections for mayor and city council were the only elections to take place in May. This practice has cost Hoboken millions of unnecessary taxpayer dollars over several years, and caused extreme voter fatigue with extra elections each year. Now, thanks to Phil's efforts at informing voters, petitioning to get the issue on the ballot, and heading the campaign to combine elections, Hoboken elections now coincide with the gubernatorial and presidential elections in November.

On June 3, I encourage voters to support the Hoboken reform movement and vote for Phil Cohen for freeholder.